What is recorded here

Megalithic tomb in Ballynoony West,ballyvatheen stands as a ruined gallery on the east side of the Black Water river valley, its stones leaning inward like they are still carrying a weight. E. O'Curry measured it at twelve feet long and four wide in 1839, but the structure vanished from later accounts before the century closed. The land around it is good pasture, and the view stretches west across the valley, suggesting the builders chose a place where the dead could still watch the life below.

This monument lay 2.5km NE of Mullinavat and about 750m SSW of the wedge-tomb (Kk. 6) in the same townland. It stood on a gentle slope on the E side of the Black Water river valley. The land in the area provides good pasture and there is a fine view from the site overlooking the valley to the W. The structure was named 'Large Grave' on the OS manuscript Fair Plan (surveyed 1839). It was incorrectly named 'Lackmore' on the first and second editions of the OS 6-inch maps (1839, 1903). The name 'Lackmore' is identified in the OS Letters as applying to a tall pillar stone where there was formerly a large cairn which covered three small cists (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 2, 145; Cody 1851, 385). This stone still stands and is located about 500m to the ENE of this site. In 1839, the 'Large Grave' was described by E. O'Curry as being 'twelve feet [3.65m] long and four [1.22m] wide. It was originally enclosed by a fence (lines) of large standing stones, three of which remain on the north side about the middle, one on the south side and one at the east end. They vary from three [0.91m] to four [1.22m] feet in height, inclining very much inwards.' (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 2, 145). The account would appear to describe the remains of a ruined megalithic gallery. The monument appears to have been destroyed shortly after O'Curry wrote this description as it is not referred to in the other mid-19th-century accounts of the monuments of this area (Anon. 1849, 27-8; Cody 1851, 385). Compiled by: Paul Walsh Date of upload: 10 May 2021

Megalithic tomb in Ballynoony West, Ballyvatheen is a portal dolmen dating to the Neolithic period. Its location near a known wedge tomb suggests it is part of a broader funerary landscape in the region.

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